(UK) Somerset: $23M special school to open in September

July 3, 2023, Somerset Live: New £18m [$23M] Somerset special school set to open by September https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/new-18m-somerset-special-school-8564777.amp

SW England

A new £18m special school on green fields in Clevedon is starting to take shape - ahead of its anticipated opening early next year. Work on the new school, an expansion of the Baytree School in Weston-super-Mare, started in May 2022.

The new school, at Brookfield Walk, is expected to open for the 2023/24 academic year in January and will take Baytree from a single site that caters to 72 children with profound and complex learning difficulties, to two-sites offering around 120 school places.

Authority education chiefs announced in 2019 plans to expand the current Baytree Special School in Weston-super-Mare to the Clevedon site to cope with a rising demand for places. Council chiefs have been working with leaders at Baytree School in Worle since 2016, looking at how to increase provision for students.

The demand for spaces has risen over recent years with some students having to be educated outside the area. Forecasting shows that the demand is to increase further due to the housing growth in the area and that the need for additional spaces is now "acute."…